The Thing.

[Garrett]

The Thing
Damn this games fun. Its a third personaction/adventure game based on the John Carpenter film.
You run around in some semi scary atmospheres, not as scary as AvP 1 or 2 atmospheres but you know. deal some justice to some disgusting little thingys. and move about. Its generally a cool game. Ive noticed a few places where the AI get a bit annoying. IE stuck in an area they cant reason their way out of.

But on the flip side, they tell you when the elements are getting to them, they tell you when they dont like the area their in, theirs a whole fear/trust section of the game.
the best part is the games not the same every time. each time you reload your team mates have a chance to become infected. The enemys dont all look the same, which is really cool.

Theirs a patch out, which solved my technical problem with the game, something minor about the cutscene audio not working properly.

Other cool things include enemys not blatantly running through fire (as you need fire to kill some things), your troops stand out of grenade range.

[[AK]Bribo]

I totally forgot about this one coming out. Need to make an emergency run to EB this week!

[[AK]Faxman]

Is it out for PC? I did an EB run today, and it wasn't in yet, for PS2 or PC. I'll have to try back on Tuesday when new stuff usually comes in.

[Garrett]

Well, if Canadian stores have it, odds are in favor of american stores haaving it.
i should probably tell you that the patch is impossibly hard to find on the official website for the game, so file planet or any other place witih patches is a better use of your time.

[[AK]Squidly]

I picked up The Thing today at "Gamespot" in my local mall in NJ. Interestingly, Gamespot was also the first in my area to have NWN. EB doesn't have it.
I'm still in the tutorial level, but the graphics are great. I love the touches from the movie like
Mcready's tape recorder...

John Carpenter gives it a big thumbs up, which is good enough for me.

[[AK]Faxman]

FYI, I picked up The Thing tonite at Best Buy for $39.99 on sale. EB had it for PS2, but not for PC. This might be the first time ever Best Buy has scooped EB, at least around here. Also, ebgames.com offered a special if you ordered it from the site you could add The Thing DVD to your order for a meager $4.99 in addition to the game price of $49.99.


Just the Fax, man.

[[AK]Palooka]

I got it last week, and I'm already quite a ways into it. It's a pretty great game so far, although I think they hold back on the "make you jump out of your seat" effects. It seems that you almost always get a warning that something creepy is going to jump out at you before it actually does. If they hadn't done this, it would be one of the scariest games ever made.

[Garrett]

the Aliens vs Predator line scared me to death...along with Thief:the dark project, and System Shock 2.
The Thing is just fun. Well, so far anyhow. Im not very far.

[[AK]The Beast]

I added this game to my collection today, and have been playing it for the past 2-3 hours or so, totally enthralled. Runs smooth as silk on my middle-of-the-road 1.1 ghz/32MB GF2 system at 1024x768/32 bit. I agree with Palooka, I instinctually stop moving forward when the music picks up, and thus far, that's made a couple of critter attacks rather anti-climactic. (I've just entered the weather station in pursuit of the Norwegian with the radio.) But all in all, this is the scariest, most atmospheric game since System Shock 2.

But am I the only one who's disappointed that there's no multiplay in this game? The individual roles would have made co-op play a blast. Or envision a 4 on 4 deathmatch, with or without the wildcard of AI monsters that hunt down any humans they can find. An editor would have been nice too--with the talented scripters around these parts, we could have had a nice "ghost stories around the campfire" feel playing one another's maps. Just minor quibbles, though--all in all, the game is a blast thus far.

Side question: does anyone know if your squadmates are programmed to transform into Things at set times? I just had my engineer (the Southern guy) turn, and after I dispatched him, I got assaulted on all sides by a big fella and a whole bunch of the spiders. Could I have protected him to have some backup there?

Edit: just read Garrett's initial post more carefully--is it actually random? My second medic (the guy from the cafeteria) transformed every time at the same place, and I had died and reloaded three times.

[[AK]Palooka]

The transformations are, in fact, scripted, which kind of ruins one of the coolest ideas in the game -- the who can you trust aspect.

[Garrett]

I can say for certian ive had one guy transform before the other. Its hard to talk about this and not ruin the game for someone else.

[[AK]Squidly]

Originally posted by [AK]Palooka
I got it last week, and I'm already quite a ways into it. It's a pretty great game so far, although I think they hold back on the "make you jump out of your seat" effects. It seems that you almost always get a warning that something creepy is going to jump out at you before it actually does. If they hadn't done this, it would be one of the scariest games ever made.

Yeah, they do tend to give you a cut scene before the monster appears, don't they...